The HISTORY of Freestyle.From "FREESTYLE
GREATEST BEATS" Vol. 1-10
PART 1

What is Freestyle? In order to
answer that question you'd have to go back as far as the death of Disco
back in the early 80's. Disco was Pop music in the late 70's and one of
the biggest radio stations in the country was Disco 92 (WKTU-FM) in New
York. Disco 92's core audience was made up primarily of Hispanics and
Italian Americans. When Disco faltered in the early 80's, so did WKTU's
ratings. In a move to bolster their sagging ratings, WKTU changed their
format (and eventually their call letters) to a more mainstream pop
format and eventually to rock. Another station cross-town, WXLO (99X)
also was changing its format. By 1981, 99X changed to 98.7 KISS-FM, an
urban station hoping to chip away at WBLS' stronghold on New York's
African American audience. In 1983, WHTZ (Z100) went on the air to take
on WPLJ for the mainstream, primarily white audience abandoned by WKTU.
Through all these format changes, one demographic - the huge Hispanic
audience in New York went - overlooked. Most Latins opted for KISS-FM
and WBLS, who did play the occasional club record, but other Latins
found an alternative to hear new music. They went underground.

In 1982, when Afrika Bambaataa and the
Soulsonic Force released "Planet Rock," a new sound was born.
Some called it "hip-hop be-bop" or breakdancing music. While
most of the neighborhood clubs were steadily closing their doors for
good, some Manhattan clubs were suddenly thriving. Places like the Roxy,
the Funhouse, Broadway 96, Gothams West, and Roseland who played this
new sound were packed. Records like "Play At Your Own Risk" by
Planet Patrol, "One More Shot" by C-Bank, "Numbers"
by Kraftwerk, "Al-Naafiyish (The Soul)" by Hashim and "I.O.U."
by Freeze became huge hits in New York. Some producers wisely copied the
sound and made songs that were more melodic. Records like "I
Remember What You Like" by Jenny Burton, and "Let The Music
Play" and "Give Me Tonight" by Shannon were all over New
York radio. Many of these performers performed at the Funhouse and
Roseland to packed dance floors. The people packing these dance floors
were young Latins, mainly Puerto Rican. The D.J.'s who played the music,
(i e. Jellybean, Tony Torres, Raul Soto. Roman Ricardo, etc.) were also
Hispanic. However, those on stage performing these songs were not,
neither were most of the producers making the music.

There were exceptions. In 1984, Nayobe released
her first single "Please Don't Go." Nayobe, a Cuban American
who was sixteen years old when she recorded the song, was the discovery
of Andy Panda who co-produced and co-wrote the song "Please Don't
Go" became an instant club classic and served as a bridge between
the Shannonesque records that were flooding the market and the sound
that developed the following year - Latin Hip-Hop. This was also true of
Jellybean's remake of the classic "The Mexican." The single
that many consider the first true Latin Hip-Hop record was Lisa Lisa and
Cult Jam's "I Wonder If I Take You Home." The song was
originally signed to Personal Records in New York and not released in
the U.S. It was licensed to CBS Records in England and became a big club
record on import. The response the record received from the Latin
Hip-Hop clubs led Columbia Records to pick up the single for U S release
where it became an anthem for teen-age girls. The song reached #34 on
the Pop charts in August of 1985 and Lisa Lisa became a role model for
young Hispanics all over her hometown of New York.

It was also 1985 when I discovered three young
Puerto Rican teens named Tony, Kayel and Aby - TKA. Kayel came to Tommy
Boy Records, where I worked at the time, with rap demos, but I turned
them all down. When he told me he could also sing, I agreed to go to a
performance at a sweet sixteen party in the basement of a church in East
Harlem. It was there I first heard "Scars of Love," a song
Kayel wrote that they would perform over the instrumentals of the
biggest rap tracks of the moment. When I saw the reaction of the largely
Latin crowd of kids, I knew I had to do something to get them signed. It
was at this party that I also met the Latin Rascals - Tony Moran and
Albert Cabrera, whose names I knew from their editing work on Arthur
Baker and John Robie productions and their D.J. work on WKTU and
KISS-FM. We went into the studio and recorded a rough version of
"Scars Of Love." By summer of that year TKA had begun to build
a following in New York performing the song for free wherever someone
would let them, such as radio station events and benefit concerts. Word
of mouth finally reached Tommy Boy Records who decided to sign the
group. Although we had recorded a rough version of "Scars Of
Love," we felt it needed reworking and decided to record a new song
to be TKA's first single.

At the same time, Andy Panda was working on a
new girl group he envisioned as being a Latin version of the Supremes.
The group was the Cover Girls. He and the Latin Rascals produced a demo
for the group and began working on a stage show for the girls. Andy and
I were Iooking for the same thing; a group that Hispanics could look up
to and feel represented by.

On August 2, 1985, a club called the Devil's
Nest opened its doors on the corner of Webster and Tremont Avenues in
the Bronx. The club was originally intended to be a salsa club but the
turnout was very light and the club owner, Sal Abbatiello, knew he had
to think fast to keep the club alive. After a visit to a Manhattan club
called Inferno which was packing in a large Latin teen crowd, he decided
he should try to make Inferno's formula work in the Bronx. In order to
succeed, he needed the right D J., the most popular new D J. on the
street, to draw the crowd to the Devil's Nest. He heard about a young
Puerto Rican D.J. who didn't play in clubs because he was too young, but
when he played at local street jams, crowds followed him. The D.J. was
Little Louie Vega. Two weeks later the Devil's Nest booked Expose, hired
Little Louie, and Sal crossed his fingers. Luck he didn't need. The
combination of Little Louie's following and the popularity of Exposé's
hits "Point Of No Return" and "Exposed To Love" paid
off. The club was packed and stayed packed week after week.

Little Louie started playing "Show
Me" by the Cover Girls and "One Way Love" by TKA on demo
reels. They soon became Louie's biggest records even before they were
officially released. On March 1, 1986, one week after the release of
"One Way Love," TKA performed at the Devil's Nest. The club
was packed with kids waiting to see who sang the record that they had
heard in the club for weeks. When TKA walked on stage, the crowd went
crazy. In all honesty, the show was rough around the edges, but the
crowd loved them. They were happy to see one of their own on stage. TKA
wound up repeating their entire show twice that night.

The same response greeted the Cover Girls at
their first performance at the Devil's Nest. Dressed in sequined gowns,
Caroline Jackson, Sunshine Wright and then lead singer Angel Sabater
nervously took to the stage to perform "Show Me" for the first
time. By the first few notes of the intro to the song, the crowd was
screaming and pushing to the stage to get a closer look at the Cover
Girls. By the song's end, the whole audience was singing the chorus and
the Cover Girls, no longer nervous, exuded the confidence of twenty-year
veterans of the business. To the Devil's Nest, they were the Supremes -
their Supremes. Although Freestyle was not conceived at the Devil's
Nest, this is where it was born.